Black President Season 2 Collection

by Brenda Hampton

  My mother pushed him aside while displaying a frown on her face. “What in the hell went on here? What did she do to you?”

  “I’m fine,” I said, pushing her away. “We just, uh, had a long and overdue talk.”

  Joshua’s face was twisted as he helped Ina off the floor. All of a sudden, she was in so much pain that she could barely stand. Her tears were back and she held her stomach while crouched over.

  “Do you need a doctor, mother?” he asked. “What happened and what did he do to you?”

  My mother cocked her head back and was blunt with her reply. “I hope he beat her ass. That’s what he should have done, and please tell me she did not put her hands on you.”

  She saw my lip bleeding and plenty of flesh revealing scratches on my hands. Scratches were probably on my face too. And with my shirt off, it looked as if I’d been street fighting. There was no question who had won the fight, and we both looked worse than what it really was.

  “Grandmother,” Joshua said. “Stop it. Can’t you see my mother is hurt? She needs a doctor. Somebody needs to take her to the emergency room.”

  My mother snapped back. “Grandson, your mother can go to hell. Can’t you see my son is hurt, and if he’s severely hurt, she will need a doctor after I get finished with her.”

  Seeing that things were about to get more out of hand, I was already on my feet. “Let’s go,” I said to Lenny and my mother. I wiped my hand down my sweaty and wet face and sighed. “Ina and Joshua need to leave too,” I said to Lenny. “Please take them to wherever they want to go.”

  “Joshua isn’t going anywhere with her,” my mother said. “Tell your father what we discussed on the way here.”

  Joshua looked at Ina who was still holding her stomach like she was in pain. “I . . . I know what we discussed,” he said. “But I changed my mind. I don’t want to stay here. I want to go with my mother. We all will never get along, and this is too much. I can’t believe you did this to her. No woman deserves to be treated this way.”

  I looked at Joshua and had to bite my tongue. There was no way for me to defend my actions. I could say that Ina came after me first and that her tears were fake, but that would do me no good. He was on his mother’s team and that was obvious.

  “Whatever you decide to do is fine with me,” I said then swallowed. “I already told you I will make no decisions for you, but please know everything that happened here tonight is not what it seems.”

  “Joshua, you need to listen to us,” my mother said. “Going anywhere with your mother is a big mistake. All she’s going to do is use you and . . .”

  “Let it go, Grandmother,” Joshua said, raising his voice. “I’ve already heard enough about what she’s done. But staying here with you won’t make things any better. We need to go and go soon.”

  Ina smiled and threw her arms around Joshua. “Thank you, sweetheart. I love you so much and you’re right. We need to get out of here. Go far away, just you and me, and be done with all of this.”

  I could already see this was a battle I wasn’t going to win. And instead of putting Joshua on the spot, I walked around my mother who was still trying to convince him to change his mind. After I grabbed my shirt and jacket, I tossed them over my shoulder and made my way to the door.

  “Stephen, where in the hell are you going?” my mother yelled. “Don’t you dare walk out and leave him here with this witch. Aren’t you going to do something?”

  I stopped near the door to look at her, then Ina. “You two have already done enough. Whenever Joshua wants to talk, he has my private number to reach me.”

  I opened the door and walked out. After I got on the elevator, I told Lenny again to take Joshua and Ina wherever they wanted to go, and the other agent to take my mother back to the White House. As for General Stiles, she and I had other plans.

  Thirty minutes later, General Stiles had driven me to the underground bunker where she had taken Levi to. I couldn’t help but to thank her for honoring my request to bring him here. She’d already told me Levi had put up a good fight at the airport and he refused to follow her command. Because he’d refused to cooperate, she had to Taser him just to get him inside of the car. After she handcuffed him, she mentioned that another scuffle had taken place. I didn’t realize how bad it was, until I stood in front of Levi in the cold room surrounded by nothing but concrete walls. One of his eyes was swollen shut. Dried blood was on a cut above his bushy brow and his shirt was off. His big belly sat on his lap as he was positioned in a metal chair with his hands cuffed behind him.

  “So,” he said, licking across his dry lips. “This is how it’s going down, huh? After all I’ve done for you, including saving your life, and you don’t even want to hear my side of the story. You’d rather sick your Pitbull on me and let that slick mouth bitch do this to me. Come on, man. Really?”

  As General Stiles stood silent behind me, I removed a chair from the corner and put it right in front of Levi. I straddled it backwards and held out my hands.

  “Of course I’m going to give you a chance to explain yourself. I mean, what are friends for, Levi? I will never forget all that you’ve done for me, and I’m never going to forget what you didn’t do either. So, let’s hear it. Of all people, why did you have to betray me?”

  Levi looked down and shook his head. “Man, look. It wasn’t my intentions to betray you. I was ready to ride this shit out with you. But then Ina got at me. Said Mr. McNeil was willing to up the kind of paper I ain’t never had in my hands. I listened to what the old man had to say, and as long as his plan didn’t revolve around killing you, I didn’t see no harm in it. I was just supposed to help Ina set this thing up with Joshua, and, eventually, disappear. The goal was to make you feel under pressure. You know, kind of stress you the hell out so you would resign and put the Republicans back in full control. All of this shit ain’t worth it, man, and you couldn’t be serious about trying to run this damn racist country. I know you want out. It was my way of helping you get out sooner. If you consider that as betraying you, I guess I did.”

  I sat silent for a few seconds, thinking about what Levi had said. He had me fucked up. It was apparent that he didn’t know me as well as he thought he did.

  “Anything else,” I said with narrow eyes as I zoned in on the center of his wrinkled forehead.

  Levi cleared his clogged throat. “Nah, not really. I just want you to know how sorry I am, and I hope like hell that our friendship don’t have to end like this. From the looks of those scratches on your face and your fat lip, I guess you must’ve . . .”

  “Yeah, I was in a fight earlier.” I touched my swollen lip and thought about Ina. “But if you think I look bad, you should see her. And since I already had one fight today, consider yourself lucky because I’m not in the mood to fight again.”

  I turned in the chair to look at General Stiles. “How many people know about this little incident, or should I say how many people know we’re down here?”

  She moved closer to me and patted my shoulder. “Just you, me and Levi, Mr. President. That’s it.”

  “Are you sure?” I wanted confirmation. “Don’t lie. You know I don’t like liars.”

  She laughed and looked me dead in my eyes. “I can confirm it, sir. Just you, him and me know. No one else.”

  I raised my hand and she slapped a 9mm in it. Tears streamed down Levi’s face, sweat beads covered his body, and spit flew from his mouth as he yelled at me. “Stephen, it’s me, man! Levi! This country don’t give a fuck about you! Why you keep trying to save people who don’t give a shit about you! Let the Republicans have this shit and get your black ass outta the Oval Office! All they want you to do is clean up their mess. You know the last election was rigged so you could come in and do Massa’s work for him. That orange muthafuckah made a mess, and you need to turn the keys back over to those messy fuckers! Tell me, man. How many times we gotta step in and clean up their mess for them? The last black president did it and at look how they treate
d him. Like shit and they gon’ do you the same way too. They don’t want you there, and no matter what you do, you’re still a nigger in all of their eyes! All of them!”

  Offering no reply, I fired a bullet into the center of Levi’s forehead. The chair flew back and hit the floor. A pool of blood ran from his head, and without an ounce of regret, I swung around to look at General Stiles.

  “Please get someone who won’t ask you any questions to help you clean this up,” I said. “I’m leaving and I won’t forget that I owe you one.”

  I slapped the gun back into her hand. She looked at it and smiled. “No, Mr. President, you owe me several. And I’m coming to get what I want real soon.”

  I didn’t reply to her comment either. Just walked out of the room and made my way down the long, narrow hallway. My mind was all over the place. This was the first murder I’d committed on American soil, since I became president. I hoped there wouldn’t be more—I was trying hard not to be the reckless young man I used to be while living in St. Louis. Memories of those days flashed before me, and for a split second I thought about Levi. I felt everything he’d said, and, yes, there was proof that the election process was rigged. But since I was the chosen one, they were now stuck with me. I intended to do things my way, and I wasn’t going to let racist motherfuckers stop me from accomplishing the things I needed to do. I didn’t care if they liked me or not, and unlike the last black president, I wasn’t going to sugarcoat shit. Yeah, some people would say that a president needed to have the right temperament and be above pettiness, but disrespecting me and my family wasn’t considered petty. It was personal, and I had to prepare myself to take some of the people who didn’t want me in the White House head on.

  I neared the exit door; my thoughts switched to Joshua. Never in my wildest dream could I have imagined the day I’d met him would turn out like this one. I still had so many things I wanted to talk to him about, but that conversation wouldn’t take place tonight. I was exhausted. I didn’t know if I was going back to the White House tonight or not. The one thing I was sure of was I needed a long hot shower and a comfortable bed to lie in. My body was aching, feelings were quite bruised. I needed to be by myself, so instead of getting back into the vehicle General Stiles and I came in, I decided to walk around for a while. Normally, at a time like this Michelle would’ve been a good person to converse with. But since I’d found out she’d been doing some foul crap behind my back with my mother, I had no desire to speak to her. She hadn’t called, ever since the day I’d confronted her about knowing my mother. I guess she knew that reaching out to me again would be a big mistake.

  I made my way through the barbed wire fence without anyone seeing me. And as I proceeded to walk down a curvy, two-lane road, only a few cars passed me. I spotted a small gas station on the corner, and with no cars parked outside, I went inside to get something to drink. At first, the Asian man kept squinting and watching me to see if was going to steal something. I guess my messy, blood stained slouchy clothes alerted him, as well as my fat lip and scratches. But when I made my way to the counter and asked for a bottle of gin, he slapped his hand over his mouth.

  “Oh my, you, uh, aren’t you the president?”

  “No,” I said without hesitating. “Everyone thinks I look like him.”

  The man scratched his head and kept looking at me. He reached for a bottle of gin from behind the counter, then scanned it on the register. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any cash on me to pay, so I had to give him a credit card. He looked at my name, smiled and then he gave the card back to me.

  “The gin is on me,” he said. “A big thank you for stopping by, and while you’re here, would you mind taking a picture with me? I go get my cell phone.”

  I was in no mood for pictures, nor did I want anyone else to see me like this. “Not tonight. When I’m feeling much better I’ll come back to take some pictures and have a drink with you. Meanwhile, I need a ride somewhere. How fast can I get a taxi?”

  “For you, Mr. President, I will close my store and take you where you need to go. Just tell me where, okay?”

  I didn’t want him to close up, but I needed a ride back to the White House. It was almost midnight, and after I downed a few swigs of gin, I knew I’d need a comfortable bed.

  “Thank you,” I said. “I would appreciate that very much.”

  The man rushed to close his business, and just as he was locking the door, a man in a truck pulled up to get gas. The Asian man told the man unless he was paying outside with a credit card, he wouldn’t be able to get gas.

  “Fuuuuck,” the Caucasian young man shouted. “I’m on empty and I can’t make it to another gas station. Come on, man, what’s the deal?”

  “The deal is I’m leaving,” the Asian man said. “I have to take my good friend somewhere.”

  “Well, can’t your fucking friend wait a few minutes so I can pay for my gas? I have twenty bucks in my pocket and I need to get some gas now.”

  I moved closer to the light so the man could see who I was. He looked at me and staggered backwards. I could tell he was drunk from the way his voice slurred. He slowly lifted his finger and pointed at me.

  “Are—are you who I think you are?” His whole demeanor changed and a smile appeared on his freckled face. “I mean, this is so freaking cool. Your friend is the president? Like, how cool is that?”

  “Real cool,” I said, making my way over to his truck. He followed. I slid my credit card into the slot to pay for his gas.

  “This is so freaking unreal,” he said, laughing. “Nobody is going to believe this shit. Is it okay for me to snap a photo of you, or is like Secret Service going to pop out of nowhere and like kick my ass if I do?”

  “Instead of taking a picture, why don’t you come over here and pump your gas? I don’t mind paying, but I’m not going to pump too.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, right, okay man. Thanks again, and just so you know, this is like . . . like one of the highlights of my life.”

  I shook his hand, and when the Asian man parked next to the man’s truck, I got in the backseat.

  “Don’t you want your receipt,” the Caucasian man said, before I shut the door.

  “I chose not to get one. Be safe and no more drinking and driving tonight.”

  The man saluted me as I closed the door. The Asian man drove off, and as I popped the cap on the bottle of gin, he looked at me through the rearview mirror.

  “Where to, Mr. President?” he asked. “And just so you know, this is a highlight of my life too. I feel like I’m dreaming. I can’t believe you’re actually sitting in the back of my vehicle.”

  All day, I’d felt so worthless. It felt good to hear such kind words. I thanked the man for saying them. I then took a swig of the alcohol and frowned from the taste. It wasn’t long before I screwed the cap back on and laid the bottle on the seat. Drinking definitely wasn’t for me—it never had been, especially after I witnessed what alcohol had done to my mother.

  “Take me to the White House,” I said. “Drive slow and turn on some music if you don’t mind.”

  I laid my head back and closed my eyes. The Asian man cranked up the volume on a bullshit song I’d never heard. He kept talking to me, but I’d tuned him out. My thoughts were still on all that had happened today. I hoped that Joshua called me soon. I needed to hear from him.

  “Mr. President, where would you like for me to let you out at? I can only get so close to the White House, you know.”

  “You can let me out near the security checkpoint. Not too close, because I don’t want anyone to see you. And just in case I forget, thanks again.”

  “No problem. I’ve totally enjoyed this, even though we haven’t talked much. I guess you have a lot on your mind. The explosion that happened at the hotel was horrible. It’s a shame those people had to lose their lives over a stupid idiot with issues.”

  I just nodded and kept my eyes closed. It was a shame—all of it was.

  Minutes later, the Asian m
an pulled over to a curb that was a few feet away from the White House security checkpoint. From a distance, I could see several reporters outside and a bunch of media vans. I assumed chaos was about to erupt, especially since I had slipped away from the press who often covered my every move. I took a deep breath and thanked the Asian man again. Before I exited the car, I allowed him to snap a photo with me. In his opinion, being in my presence was the best.

  “Thank you, Mr. President. I can’t wait to show my wife and kids. May I have your autograph too? You can put it on the bottle of gin, if you’re not going to finish it.”

  “I’m not going to finish it, but I don’t think it would be wise for me to put my signature on a bottle of gin.”

  He laughed, and instead of putting my signature on the bottle, I scribbled my signature on his leather headrest. He didn’t appear upset, just smiled as I did it. After that, I exited the car and made my way toward the checkpoint gates. As he passed by me, he honked the horn and sped off. I buttoned my suit jacket, and with my hands in my pockets, I casually walked toward the gates. One reporter spotted me and it was all over with. As he rushed my way, so did the others.

  “Mr. President, we thought you had been kidnapped. Where were you?” A reporter asked, before putting his mic close to my mouth. I smacked it away and the frown on my face deepened as I ignored his question and kept walking.

  “Were you with your mistress?” A female reporter asked. “Does the first lady know who you were with?”

  I cocked my neck from side-to-side and ignored her question too. I didn’t speak up until one reporter spoke to me like she’d had some sense.

  “Mr. President, are you okay? The American people are concerned about you, and many of us thought something tragic had happened.”

  I halted my steps to answer her question. “I’m fine. I went for a lengthy walk, and—” I couldn’t finish my statement because Secret Service rushed to my side.

  “We need this area cleared right away.” David reached for my arm while several other agents attempted to clear the area. “Come this way, sir. Are you okay? You don’t look okay.”